Lip Sync Videos: Celebrity Cameo edition

One of my favorite music video customs is when a celebrity (either a friend of the artist or a random celebrity in general) is the main star of a music video. What I mean by this is all the music videos where a celebrity is basically lip-singing in place of the actual artist. The reasons I love this style of music video is because I feel like a) the people probably had a ton of fun making the video, and b) they usually don’t need a lot of trimmings in order to be considered funny or exciting.  One of the most recent videos to do this is Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call Me Maybe. In the video below Carly Rae’s friends (J’Biebs, Selena Gomez, Ashley Tisdale and more!) dance, lip sing, and all around have fun.

Here are some other classic videos with also do the same thing. 

Paul Simon: You Can Call Me Al:

Why I love this video: Not only is this song so catchy, and fun (although I know maybe 10% of the lyrics), but it stars Chevy Chase as Paul Simon! It doesn’t need a lot of frills or special effects. It’s just two dudes hanging out in a semi pink lit room playing random instruments (including a pen flute!), and yet I’m literally enthralled every time I watch it.

Elton John: I Want Love:

Why I love this video:  Because I love everything with Robert Downey Jr. No MATTER WHAT! But seriously. How amazing is he in this video? Its important to note that RDJ did this video right before/as his career was resurrecting itself. This isn’t the only Elton song on the list, and it had me wondering if he just felt like he didn’t love the way he looked anymore and had to get relatively attractive ‘younguns’ to sing in his place? Discuss…

Sara Bareilles: Uncharted:

Why I love this video: This video wins MAJOR points from me for putting Adam Levine, Pharell Williams, and Josh Groban in the same 4 minute clip. It involves a bevy of music artists lip-syncing Sara’s tune and is really fun to watch. Is Sara friend with all these people? And if so, can I be her friend so I know all of them by extension?

Fiona Apple: Not About Love:

Why I love this video: Didn’t every woman growing up in the 90’s go through a Fiona Apple phase? That being said how fabulous is it that Zach Galifianakis, who was not at all famous at the time is the star of this video singing Fiona’s lyrics with her voice? This isn’t his only video appearance on this list either…

Snow Patrol: Called Out in the Dark:

Why I love this video: I’m not sure why I love this video more; the fact that Gemma from Ringer plays the director of the music video or the fact that Jack Davenport plays the lead singer of snow patrol while the ACTUAL lead singer of snow patrol plays a desperate stand-in wishing he was the star. Ps for all of you who aren’t a freak like me who recognizes every celebrity, you might recognize Jack Davenport from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, or NBC’s Smash.

Elton John: This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore:

Why I love this video: Justin Timberlake! Yes that is JT in full 70’s Elton garb. It was this video that made Elton believe that JT should play him in a biopic on Elton Johns life (and who would be the first person in line to see that movie? 3 guesses). JT does have the look down for sure (even down to the teeth, details people!). I guess it’s interesting to note that this is the only video on the list where the celebrity actually dresses up like the person to which they are lip synching.

Beastie Boys: Make Some Noise:

Why I love this video: Well most of you who have previously read my blog know that I love this video in general for the 1,000,000 celebrity cameos in general. But the brilliance of this video, aside from the fact that the beasties made music that was actually good 20 years after their debut, is the casting of the 3 boys. Knowing the beasties are too old to act like partying fools they hired thee current actors who have played stoners pretty recently (including Elijah Wood in the very oddball series Wilfred). Whatever the case, the whole video is brilliant to me.

Kanye West: Can’t Tell Me Nothing:

Why I love this video: Who doesn’t want to see a super white weirdo singing Kanye West? The greatness of this video stems not only from the fact that Zach Galifianakis is the Kanye of this scenario, but also the fact that this song about Kanye telling his haters virtually to go screw themselves, and how he deals with the pressure of fame, is sung by random white people on a farm in a COMPLETELY serious way. Favorite part is when all those random milk maid style girls are dancing with the guy in overalls. Classic.

Bonus Video:

The Black Keys: Lonely Boy:

Technically speaking this is not a celebrity lip-synced video so it couldn’t be included in the list above, but it’s so great. This random dude at a random looking motel singing and dancing to black keys= Perfection.

Did I miss your favorites? Post about them below!

“Get Off Your Rich Asses and Lets Have Some Fun!” AKA Grammys Roundup

Thank you Bruno Mars for that amazing quote. After a brief blogging Hiatus I am back with my Grammy performance round up.

But first on a more somber note- RIP Whitney Houston, your talent was undeniable and will be missed.

-in order of performance-

Bruce Springstein and the E-Street Band- We Take Care of Our Own-  Bruce is always good for a traditional performance. I never find anything über exciting about it but it is usually quite good, and this was pretty much the same. This particular song, a new release, was only ok for me. Maybe I would have liked it if he had played Dancing in the Dark or Born to Run I would have been more excited.  B

Bruno Mars- Runaway- Aside from giving everyone that awesome quote Bruno mars is amazing. I seriously think he is so freaking talented. He a) has a great voice and b) can really move! The dance moves were nuts like his legs were made of jelly. He also kept right along with his “doo-wop” Motown feel which I commend him for. Way to go consistency! A-

Bonnie Raitt and Alicia Keys- Etta James’ Sunday Kinda Love- Alicia Keys sounded good on this, but Bonnie Raitt was freaking awesome! I couldn’t believe how great she sounds for her age. Also wasn’t a fan of Alicia’s pompadour. The ode to Etta was too short in my opinion but very classy in the downscale performance. B

Chris Brown- Turn Up the Music/Beautiful People- Begin Rant- I like, this article feel like Chris Brown should NOT have been allowed to perform at the Grammys. Remember that time that Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMA’s and was completely ostracized for a long time (til my dark twisted fantasy helped bring people back on board the ‘ye train). Why in the world was Kanye treated worse than a man who hit his gf so hard she had to go the hospital?! Domestic abuse is not ok and should not be perceived as so by allowing Chris Brown to perform on a large scale stage- End Rant. That being said Chris didn’t do much singing on these two numbers. Mostly dancing with crazy men in flying squirrel costumes. Blah. The guy can dance but why is that being showcased here? C-

Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson- Don’t You Wanna Stay- I’m not really sure what is so great about Jason Aldean and why he is currently the “golden boy” of country music, he sounds like most other country singers to me, and even had an embarrassing situation when his mic went out on stage during this performance. He looked pretty annoyed. Kelly on the other hand has been awesome live (see national anthem performance at superbowl) and this performance was no exception. Their harmonizing was good though. B-

Foo Fighters (1)-Walk- Foo Fighters are apparently not cool enough to perform on the ACTUAL grammy stage so they have to perform in the tent outside. Regardless I kinda wanted them to sing Rope because I thought it would give them the chance to rock out hard, unlike Walk which is a great song but more somber. Regardless they performed Rope later so look out for it at that point. B

Coldplay and Rihanna- We Found Love/Princess of China/Paradise- This might come as a surprise but I am not a huge fan of the club anthem We Found Love. It’s too much synthetic beat for me to really love it. When she sang it acapella for about a minute I was like…wow this is great. And then the club music came in. I mean she’s a great live performer so the performance itself was good, but again I don’t love the song. On the collaboration between Coldplay and Rihanna Princess of China they sounded ok; again this isn’t one of my favorite songs off of Mylo Xyloto. On Paradise Coldplay tried to re-create some of the magic of the Charlie Brown video with all the black lit bright paint splotches. It made me wish they were singing that song instead of Paradise because I think it’s normally a hard song to sing and Chris Martin struggled a bit, but all in all a pretty solid performance by both artists. B

Beach Boys, Foster the People, and Maroon 5- Surfer Girl/Wouldn’t it be Nice/Good Vibrations- Foster the people and Maroon 5 showed exactly how hard it is to sing a Beach Boys song. While Adam Levine did admirably on Surfer Girl, Foster the People sounded/looked a bit nervous when taking on Wouldn’t it be Nice. I told my friends earlier that day that I had thought Foster the People should sing Good Vibrations, and was honestly disappointed when they didn’t. BUT then the Beach Boys came out and sang it and everyone joined in! Dream came true. B+

Paul McCartney (1)-My Valentine- I had been trying to listen to Paul’s new album Kisses on Bottom for days and hadn’t been able to, but this new song deemed a “new” valentines day standard was pretty boring and sad, and prompted the millions of twitter followers to say “whose Paul McCartney anyways?” C+

The Civil Wars- Barton Hollow- Literally this 60 second snippet of this folk/country band had me BEGGING for more. I loved every second (of the sixty) and have been listening to this band non stop on spotify ever since. Amazing. A

Taylor Swift- Mean- Most of you know that I am not Taylor’s biggest fan, but I actually like the song Mean.  She plays the banjo well and I like the jamboree feel and the close re-creation to her music video. All in all a good folksy performance. A-

Katy Perry- ET/Part of Me- Both of these songs and subsequent performances were only ok for me. I get that she was going for a very futuristic vibe but it was a little too much for me. B-

Adele-Rolling in the Deep- Oh how I love Adele. She is seriously the best ever. Not only does she look amazing but she sounds amazing live. Her performance didn’t need a ton of frills to be great either which is part of the reason why she is so singular in her awesomeness. I also re-watched this performance probably 4 times because of how great it was. A+

The Band Perry/Blake Shelton/ Glenn Campbell- Tribute to Glenn Campbell- I like the band Perry better than Lady Antebellum. There I said it. Sue me. I also like Blake Shelton and his charming country boy ways. As you know I’m not a huge country fan in general but everyone did well I thought. Including Glenn Campbell himself. B+

Tony Bennet and Carrie Underwood- It Had to be You- While this pairing was random Carrie did quite well against the always classy and wonderful Tony Bennet. There harmonizing was pretty good too. B+

Jennifer Hudson- Dolly Parton/Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You- in this tribute to Whitney JHud soared. She sounded elegant and didn’t do a carbon copy of the original which I commend her for. The performance really showed the classic beauty of the song. A

Chris Brown, David Guetta, and Lil Wayne-I Can Only Imagine- So while I do like David Guetta I still really don’t like Chris Brown. This song is pretty catchy albeit super clubby, but the entire performance was odd. There were all these audience members holding up random giant glow sticks (like miniature inflated flailing arm tube men) and also looked like it was filmed via audience member in the outdoor tent area. C

Foo Fighters and Dead Mau5- Rope- Really Glad Foo got a chance to rock out but why the need to make it more clubby with the addition of Dead Mau5(who btw haunts my nightmares, someone get that guy off the stage!) B

Nicki Minaj- Roman Holiday- aside from the random thirty second amusing homage to The Excorcist, this was some weird performance. Weirder than ANYTHING Gaga has turned out and that is saying A LOT. Unlike most of her hits this tune didn’t really have a great hook. How much more awesome would it have been had she performed super bass. Seriously. C-

Paul McCartney- Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End- For the last performance of the night the Grammys wisely brought back Sir Paul for this awesome rendition of the Beatles classics. I thought he sounded great (although looked old) and I loved it when he brought so many people on stage with him to rock out at the end (including Dave Grohl finally performing on the real grammy stage and looking thrilled!, and The Boss). A

All in all a more B average night overall. Who, like me, wishes Adele was their friend?